Hey guys, and welcome back to Running for Life!

Heh, sorry about the lack of an update and/or author's note last week. It's just that I was in Universal Studios Orlando, Florida, and the whole time I was there, I was either physically in the parks or dead tired, so...no time to write! Also on the plane ride there, I was doing stuff for school, and on the plane ride back, I was so exhausted that all I had the mental capacity to do was play Solitaire and listen to Melanie Martinez the whole time. Exciting, I know XD

Anyway, you know the drill! Review time! Huge thanks go out to Serami Nefera, Brenne, Yukomin (Yes. Yes I do XD), BooksAreMedicine, Rhapsoddity (Wow, really!? Cool, you've gotta let me know when you've done that! :D), Randomly Talented, NotCanadian (Why thank you, I do quite enjoy being evil XD), rwbygirl, yummypie193, and HeavensLuminousArc!

And with that, on with the chapter!

Chapter 31: Kill

Kill...Guardians…

Kill...Guardians…

Kill...KILL…

This mantra ran through Jack's darkened mind as he stumbled through the trees, making his way back to where he knew the Guardians remained. Every so often, a growl would start to rise in his throat, but he always quieted himself immediately, moving as silently as a shadow in the night.

Indeed, his appearance indeed greatly resembled that of a shadow. His body and clothes were inky black, flecked with various streaks of sinister frost. The space where his eyes might have been were blank, but his vision was still present, albeit distorted. Clawing at his belly was a hunger stronger than he had ever known. He wanted Fear. He needed Fear.

Kill...Guar...di...ans… he thought desperately. Get...Fear...then...kill…

There they were. He couldn't see them yet, but he could sense every spark of Fear that rolled off them in waves. He could have laughed; they feared for him. The Guardians were afraid that something had happened to him, that he had been hurt in some way.

On the contrary, Jack had never felt better. He could have done without the ravenous hunger, but knew that it would soon be satisfied. Besides, the power he felt coursing through his veins more than made up for the discomfort.

Jack stood stationary for a few moments, reveling in the delicious Fear that swirled around him. The space that represented his mouth on his shadow of a body was as blank as his empty eyes, but it curled into a sinister, almost drunken grin. The vicious hunger ebbed, and he felt his power grow. He could have cackled in mad glee, but didn't, seeing as such an action would prematurely alert the Guardians to his presence.

He slunk silently closer and smirked as the Fear intensified. His natural fearsome aura was practically drawing the beautiful energy from deep within the pathetic immortals, and Jack grew stronger with every step. His fingers sharpened into deadly claws, and he allowed a low growl to escape from his throat as he moved.

Jack now stood at the edge of the woods, his jet-black form blending in with the night. His grin widened significantly. He could see the Guardians now, gathering their weapons, presumably in order to come and look for him.

However, he knew that no weapon they could wield, not even Sandy's powerful dreamsand, would be able to harm him. They were far too afraid of him for such a thing to occur. Had they not been so wary of him, he might have been rendered powerless, but no one had ever been able to face a Fearling without experiencing intense terror. He fed off their Fear, and the power he gained from it felt amazing.

Jack knew that he could never truly obtain enough Fear, but for the time being, he was satisfied. Now, he longed to sink his newly-formed claws into the Guardians' flesh, to tear their throats and feel their blood splatter against his midnight black form. He wanted nothing more than to end their lives.

And so he pounced.

Aster had been standing the closest to him, so he was the first target. Unfortunately for Jack, the Pooka's animalistic instincts allowed him to sense the attack coming, and he was able to grab Jack and flip him over his shoulders rather easily, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Jack landed on all fours, claws latching onto the ground through the snow in order to steady himself. He hissed loudly, and sprung again, this time managing to leave a relatively deep scratch in Aster's abdomen. The rabbit gave a shout of pain, but remained standing, and was even able to kick Jack in the chest, knocking him down again.

"Bunny!" he heard Toothiana shout, and the Fearling boy smirked. He jumped up and spun around, growling and swinging his arm, hearing a yelp as his claws met flesh once more. He attempted to slash the fairy's wings, but she pulled away just in time.

North's voice rang out from somewhere off to the side. "Tooth! Catch!" There was a silver glint in Jack's peripheral vision, and before he knew it, the female Guardian had a blade in hand.

Despite the fact that her right arm was bleeding, it became apparent that Tooth was just as skilled in the art of the sword using her left hand. Without a moment of hesitation, she quickly thrust the weapon into Jack's chest.

At least, she would have, had the metal not shattered immediately on contact with him. Jack grinned wickedly at her stunned expression, then sprung at her again. She was able to dodge by flitting up into the air, but Jack didn't mind. After all, two out of the four Guardians couldn't possibly escape to the skies, and once he dealt with them, he was sure the reservoir of Fear that had been built up would grant him enough strength to pursue those with the power of flight. Perhaps he would be given wings, or would grow tall enough to simply pluck the fairy and the Sand-Spinner out of the air. Regardless, he would make sure they fell eventually.

His king commanded it, and so it would be done.

Suddenly, a golden whip coiled around his torso, and Jack hissed in pain as the dreamsand practically burned him. With a start, he realized that Sandy wasn't as afraid of him as the others were. He was still under the impression that a Fearling could not be killed, but seemed to be confident in the notion that dreamsand could at least harm them.

No...NO! Jack thought as he struggled to escape, feral hissing and growling continuously rising from his throat. Before, he had been moving far too quickly for his silhouette to be discernible, but now, he could hear the Guardian's startled gasps as they began to recognize his familiar outline.

"J...Jack!?" Toothiana cried out in shock as a golden exclamation point appeared over Sandy's head. Aster cursed loudly in Motorean, and North's jaw simply dropped.

Jack didn't care. All he wanted was to escape his bindings and murder the Guardians, preferably in the most brutal method he could manage. He had already been able to inflict damage on Tooth and Aster. All he needed to do now was finish them off and move on to kill North and Sandy.

His bloodlust drove him into a frenzy, and he thrashed against the whip wrapped around him, paying no attention to the pain it caused him. He needed to kill, and kill he would.

"This is more than possession…" he could hear North breathe. The sound was nearly drowned out by the Fearling boy's frustrated screeching, but his elfin ears were able to pick it up all the same. "He has...he has been turned into Fearling…"

Toothiana gasped, raising her left hand to cover her mouth. "No…" she whispered softly in horror. "But...but how!? How did they get to him!? He was here at the camp, we had a fire going, the light should have protected him! How-!?"

Jack, having ceased his struggling, interrupted her with a low, raspy chuckle. Despite the pain the dreamsand caused him, he slowly lifted his head to look up at Guardians.

He smirked.

Then he spoke.

"Stupid...Guardians…" Due to his lack of a vessel to possess, Jack found speaking rather difficult, but he knew that he had to tell the immortals what needed to be told. "Simple...I...wanted...this…"

His own response puzzled him a bit, as it was rather far from the truth. However, he felt as though his words were entirely necessary. Besides, regardless of whether or not he had initially wanted to become a Fearling, he was one now, and he loved it. The darkness had never felt so comfortable, and the Fear all around him was delicious. Jack knew that this existence, this life of ruling the night and devouring terror, was what he was meant for all along.

After all, what went together better than cold and dark?

The Guardians were staring at him, wide-eyed as he grinned. Tooth was the first to find her voice, and even then, all she could say was, "What…?"

Jack snickered and steeled himself to go through the ordeal of speaking once more. "Went...to...Pitch…" he rasped. "Made...deal...revenge...on...humans...and...you…" He snarled. "Hurt...me...hunted...me...no...more…" The Fearling boy smirked cruelly. "Fear...dark...blood...DEATH!" He cackled madly, reveling in the Fear that the Guardians released in response to his last statement.

Aster's eyes narrowed. "Who are ya tryin' ta fool?" he growled. "How the bloody hell would Frostbite even know where to find Pitch!? We never told him where he was hidin' out!"

If he could have spoken better, he would have mocked the Pooka on his refusal to admit that the new Jack was the same as the old, but every word was a battle in itself, so he merely got right to the point. "Fearling...brother...in...jar…told...me…" Jack rasped. He was referring to the Fearling that Sandy had imprisoned after exorcising it from Simon, the one-armed archer. Jack snickered. "Should...have...let...him...go…"

The Guardians fell for his lie; that much he could tell. What he couldn't immediately tell was how exactly they felt about it, as every one of their expressions had gone mostly blank. Chuckling, he looked closely at each of their eyes in an attempt to discern each immortal's personal reaction.

Tooth's amethyst eyes were wide, horror present in their depths.

North's sapphire eyes contained nothing aside from a strong sense of disappointment.

Sandy's topaz eyes were confused, him being the only Guardian who didn't quite believe the Fearling boy's claim.

Aster's emerald eyes held only fury.

"Th-That…" Toothiana stammered. "That can't be true...can it? Jack wouldn't...he wouldn't betray us like that, right…?"

"And why not?" Aster snarled. "The bloody sprite hates us! He tried escapin' from us before, didn't he!? He was probably plannin' ta break away sooner or later, and that damn Fearling we caught gave him the perfect chance!"

"He still had a heart!" Tooth insisted. "All he wanted to do was run away, he never wanted to hurt or kill anyone!"

"Well maybe he was just a pretty damn good actor! Ya saw all the masks he constantly had up! Why couldn't the 'I'm so innocent and lonely and misunderstood' shtick be one of them!?"

Jack smirked as the fairy faltered, unsure of herself. His plan was working out perfectly, and with Sandy distracted by the argument between his colleagues, he had a chance to escape from the dreamsand. The Fearling boy closed his empty eyes in concentration, allowing a biting cold to seep out from his body, freezing the dreamsand whip solid. His magic was just as stubborn as it was since before he became a Fearling, but thankfully, he was able to wrestle a small fraction of it into submission.

The Guardians only looked over when the whip shattered loudly, and by that time, it was far too late for them to react. Jack leapt to his feet and hissed, then sprung at Sandy, who was standing the closest to him, tackling him to the ground and attempting to claw at his flesh.

The Sand-Spinner was able to block most of Jack's strikes by sending a tendril of dreamsand to knock his hand away, but the Fearling's sharp, black claws eventually were able to rake across his chest, not digging deep enough to kill, but managing to draw blood.

The other Guardians attempted to drag him off of the little golden man multiple times, but each time they got close, he'd hiss and slash at them as well, managing to inflict multiple slash wounds on each of them. He was drunk with power, and refused to stop until the time when he would be able to gaze upon their corpses with glee, soaked in their blood and full on their Fear.

Unfortunately, someone seemed to have other plans.

Silvery light drenched the camp as the clouds shifted to reveal the Moon shining in the night sky. Jack's skin felt like it was on fire, and he practically flung himself off of Sandy, thrashing wildly on the ground as he yowled in pain.

He felt the Guardians' startled eyes on him, but could no longer form coherent thoughts as the pain threatened to overwhelm him. He felt his claws shrink back into regular fingers, and noticed his shadowy skin beginning to regain its color. With a start, he realized that something was returning him to his prior form as a snow sprite; the very last thing he wanted.

He was horrified.

Then he blacked out.

Hope you guys enjoyed Fearling!Jack, and I'll see you next week for Chapter 32!

For now, Sapphire316, out.